It’s unfortunate, but it does happen. Perhaps an employee wasn’t a good fit for the business or they were caught doing something they shouldn’t, but you had to let them go.
If they reacted particularly poorly to this parting of ways, there might be a real cause for concern. Disgruntled employees can do retaliate on businesses and often in ways that can seriously affect the profitability, safety, and reputation of the business.
Here are a few ways you should be protecting your business from the disgruntled employee.
1. They can cause problems for your team.
If things get particularly heated with an ex-employee, especially if it involves another co-worker, then you should seriously assess the risk that they might pose to your team.
Having your employees even being harassed by them is unacceptable. If there is a risk of genuine physical harm, then you must act to prevent it with the help of security services like Citiguard.
It’s best to take these precautions in advance to be sure. However, if there are any credible threats of violence or harassment, then you should get the legal authorities involved, as well.
Most people aren’t willing to risk legal trouble to satisfy some sense of revenge.
Read also: How to Grow Your Online Business by Hiring the Right Team
2. Your reputation could suffer.
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get a little revenge nowadays is to take to the internet and start typing.
Employees leaving fake reviews might not seem like it would be the worst thing in the world, but you should keep in mind the opportunity cost of losing customers and potential employees because of falsehoods published about you online.
Removify offers a service to remove Glassdoor reviews, making sure that potential employees looking at the idea of working with you don’t get turned away by lies.
You might not ever be able to prove who is behind these false reviews, but they should run out of steam soon enough after seeing that the fruits of their efforts don’t last all that long.
3. They can be a digital security risk.
If, like most businesses, you rely on a host of online tools and data to make sure that your business runs effectively, then you should be doing what you can to control who can and cannot access these digital resources.
To that end, there are a host of digital security trends you should be following.
When it comes to your ex-employees, however, the single best way to make sure you’re protected is to have a process by which you revoke any access they might have to any data or tools that they would have used while employed.
While not especially common, there have been instances of ex-employees giving log-in details to hackers or accessing files that they shouldn’t have after they left a company.
What if they are still in the business?
Employees don’t always become disgruntled when they’re out of the business.
There may be people harbouring grudges within the business right now, whether it’s due to feeling like they have been passed over, have been reprimanded unfairly, or have any other kind of grievance with the business.
They could be sabotaging your business from within. Of course, you shouldn’t suspect that every employee is potentially doing this.
But when it comes with customer-facing roles like customer support, you can rely on tools like Zintel to record their conversations so that, if there does arrive some evidence of malpractice, you can quickly get to the bottom of it.
If an employee isn’t going to address their grievances appropriately, they are not worth keeping on the team, simply put.
Can you prevent disgruntled employees?
There are going to be some people who simply do not take to any form of criticism or roadblock well.
You cannot control other peoples’ actions and if they are of a mind to try and retaliate, it’s best to simply be prepared for it.
That doesn’t mean that every employee with a grievance is going to necessarily react this way, though. The best way to influence things in the right direction is to have a strong HR policy that ensures that their rights and needs are seen to as best as possible, even when you’re not personally happy with their performance or behaviour.
Disgruntled employees might not be such a common problem that you need to constantly keep an eye out for them. If an ex-employee is causing some trouble, you should be aware of how to deal with it, at least.